Rain Halts Men’s Matches at French Open, Giving Nadal a Reprieve

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Rafael Nadal lost a set at the French Open for the first time since 2015 on Wednesday against Diego Schwartzman.CreditCreditThibault Camus/Associated Press

By Filip Bondy

June 6, 2018

PARIS — Rafael Nadal was foundering in unfamiliar straits on Wednesday at the French Open, down a set and a break in the second, when some dark, cooperative clouds rescued him from his own deteriorating game.

A delay of nearly 45 minutes allowed Nadal, the 10-time French Open champion, to withdraw to the locker room and rediscover his radar.

Back on court, he twice broke the serve of Diego Schwartzman and put together a stretch in which he won 13 of 15 points. Another rain delay soon followed, suspending the match until Thursday, but by then Nadal had righted himself in the quarterfinal.

The match was stopped for the night with the score, 4-6, 5-3, and Nadal serving at 30-15, just two points from equalizing matters.

A similar turnaround occurred just a few weeks ago in the final of the Italian Open when Nadal was down a break, 2-3, in the decisive third set to Alexander Zverev, before a rain delay reversed his fortune and led to yet another clay-court title.

Before his bad start against Schwartzman, the top-ranked Nadal had won 37 sets in a row at Roland Garros — four short of Bjorn Borg’s record. He had dropped only one set in five previous meetings with Schwartzman, a 5-foot-7 Argentine seeded No. 11.

But early on, Schwartzman’s laser forehands cut through the misty air and found the lines on a regular basis, while Nadal’s serves were noticeably off-kilter, at times nearly feeble. In the first set, he won only 10 of 21 points on his first serve.

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The two men’s quarterfinals scheduled for Wednesday were suspended because of rain.CreditChristophe Archambault/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Nadal appeared in legitimate trouble at that juncture, and a glum mood shrouded both the player and the crowd. As Schwartzman prepared to serve, one point from winning the first set, a man in the crowd collapsed, and play was halted several minutes until he was led away.

Schwartzman eventually won the next point and the set with yet another staccato forehand. Nadal then summoned a trainer to wrap both of his lower forearms, another troubling sight. Schwartzman went on to break Nadal again for a 3-2 lead in the second set before the rain delay.

All of that amounted only to an extended prologue, however, in a meandering match that will now extend into a second day.

Nadal, 32, had not played anybody ranked higher than the 27th-seeded Richard Gasquet in this tournament, and understood that Schwartzman would not be an easy mark. Schwartzman, 25, darts from corner to corner, firing back shots with surprising pace with his compact swing.

“It’s a match against one of the best players of the world today,” Nadal said, looking ahead to this contest. “You need to be ready to accept that’s going to be a tough match and fight for it. He’s a good friend, a good person.”

“He’s a worker,” Nadal added. “I’m happy to see him having all this success. Hopefully, not too much.”

The clash in styles was evident from the start, when Nadal fought off four break points in the 10-minute first game. Nadal’s looping spins were in stark contrast to Schwartzman’s sharp, flatter strokes. The smaller Schwartzman long ago learned how to counterpunch high-kick shots from the baseline, smacking them on the rise.

The two players exchanged service breaks with surprising generosity. Schwartzman broke Nadal in the third game, on a forehand down the line that tickled the net cord. Nadal returned the favor in the fourth. Schwartzman again broke through in the seventh, attacking the net behind a deep forehand. Through two sets, each player had earned — and suffered — five service breaks.

While Nadal and Schwartzman struggled on Court Philippe Chatrier, third-seeded Marin Cilic and fifth-seeded Juan Martín del Potro were deadlocked, 5-5, in a first-set tiebreaker in the other quarterfinal on Court Suzanne Lenglen. The winners of the two suspended matches will face each other in the semifinals on Friday.